More Heroclix fun

We got a box of Heroclix today.

You may recall that the girls were less than impressed with the apparent lack of opportunity for women within the ranks of A.I.M. or Hydra.

Today's box included a handful of SHIELD agents to play with, and as ar as they are concerned, all is forgiven. Yes, the "SHIELD medic" is a woman, but so are "SHIELD Trooper," "SHIELD Sniper," and one of the "SHIELD Agent" figures. The girl-children are pleased.

Grrrr.

Okay, adding Cable and Deadpool to my get list. Everyhody loves Deadpool.

But I'm not going to get Countdown. Not not not not not. *stomps foot*

I guess it comes out to some sort of savings, once 52 is over.

Iron man moment

While looking for something entirely different, I came across a copy of Iron Man #168 (1983); this was during the alcoholism storyline, obviously:



A great example of why one shouldn't drink and ty to operate heavy machinery (or wear a mask that can't be removed quickly).

I read the whole storyline when it came out, and this page has some of the images that stuck with me the most. Back then it was very unusual to have even a regular character have problems of this sort, much less the star of one of a company's major titles, and I remember wondering what would happen next, just how low were they willing to bring Tony (turns out, much lower). At the time it was startling stuff.

I suck at Heroclix!

The girls and I had our second try at Heroclix today. We're still playing a simplified version as we gradually internalize the rules. The twelve-year-old insisted that we had to have 500-point teams, so it took a while. Both kids trounced me. Seriously. The twelve-year-old won with 748 points, the eight-year-old had a perfectly respectable 628, and me? 115.

But it was fun, and even if it hadn't been it would have been worth it to watch the eight-year-old playing Deadpool.

I'm considering the possibilities around using the figures in other games as well.

A sad state of affairs

So today we got a box of Heroclix singles, including a small selection of evil minions of Hydra and A.I.M., because it's just more fun that way.

And so I'm unpacking the box, taking out the styrofoam peanuts, and I pull out one of the A.I.M. figures. I look at it--hey, cool, it's a female fanatical follower of MODOK. That's kind of neat. I look at the base: "A.I.M. Medic."

Hm.

I look at the two other varieties of A.I.M. figure--all designated as fighters, all male.

I start to look at the Hydra figures. All varieties are male, except for the one female Hydra operative: "Hydra Medic."

Okay, now granted that the two medics are both holding guns, and they can fight and all that, but damn! Apparently there's a glass ceiling in the field of Evil Minionry...

More Old School Supergirl

This looks to be the 70s-era Supergirl in a story entitled "Crypt of the Frozen Graves." In this tale Linda Danvers is trying her hand at the news business--officially she's a camera operator, but in her spare time writes freelance articles on organized crime, getting her information from a very frightened source.



Unfortunately the poor informant is discovered (and killed), and Linda has to seek out the information she wants using other means:




Better look fast--you won't see Supergirl in a revealing outfit like that again anytime soon...what's that?...ah...never mind.

In any case, Supergirl here displays that near-universal trait of the Silver Age superheroine--her execrable taste in men! One wonders as well about what she would consider a deal-breaker in a relationship. First-date groping? No problem. Criminal past? Just fine. Perfectly rational fear of bullets? Not acceptable!

But nothing to interrupt dinner over.

This, however, was...




Yes, it took endangering the lives of a restaurant full of innocent people to show Supergirl that this guy might not be Mr. Right.

And since this was the Silver Age, there's only one thing to do in this sort of situation. That's right--teach the lout a well-needed lesson!



However, the youthful Supergirl clearly hasn't yet fully developed her power of super-self-righteousness, because that lesson? Not quite what she was aiming for:




The rest of the story? Well, rest assured that there are in fact some frozen graves in this tale, and that Supergirl emerges triumphant at the story's end. Uncomfortable with the way in which her own actions as budding investigative reporter may have contributed to two deaths, she quits her job in an ethical huff, clearing the way for yet another new adventure in the next issue of her book.

And most important, Linda has learned a little lesson of her own:

Happy Iron Valentine's Day!

The eight-year-old came home from school with a bag of V-Day loot, including this card from one of the boys in her class. Personally I think the message is a bit forward for a kids' card, but then that's Tony Stark for you...

Lives of the Lovelorn: Iron Man and the Wasp

Jan has had her romantic troubles, and the sad tales of Tony's love life could fill books (and have), so I'm not doing a complete listing for either here today. Instead, I'm focusing on one brief interlude between the two, as told in Avengers 224 during the early 1980s.

At this point Jan had divorced Hank Pym (following the world-famous wife-slapping scene, after which it became inevitable), who was himself sitting in jail for an unrelated offense. Eventually that offense was proven to be not his fault and he was released. (Actually, wasn't the wife-beating also determined in a later issue to be not his fault? Some things are unforgivable regardless of retcons, apparently.)

So Hank was in jail and Jan continued her Avenging career. In fact, that's how this whole issue started--the Avengers go into battle, they defeat the villain, She-Hulk is holding up a building, Hawkeye helps her out with some well-placed arrows, the day is saved, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, we see this:



And perhaps nothing would have come of it--surely Tony Stark notices pretty girls all the time--but not long after, while relaxing at "one of his many Manhattan dwellings," Tony is all set to skip a fabulous party in favor of spending the night at home. But when he hears who else is on the guest list--namely, Jan--he changes his mind. And pretty soon they're dancing the night away:



and more:



In the weeks to come, the two start dating up a storm, attending glamorous events, vacationing together on a tropical island:



even visiting a street far (because although Jan and Tony are rich, they can still appreciate the common pleasures :)) and going out for coffee afterwards:



The attentive reader will have noticed something here: Tony is dating Jan while not letting on to her that he is Iron Man, her old friend and colleague. Her ex-husband's old friend and colleague.

Sure, he's a little guilty about it--okay, quite a bit guilty--but one wonders how it is that he was willing to go on a single date with her in this situation. It's not a Superman-and-Lois situation, after all--a number of the other Avengers already know that Stark is IM, and apparently the only reason Jan doesn't is that she wasn't active on the team at the time he made the announcement. He clearly knows that there's something wrong about this, and yet he just can't bring himself to tell Jan about the secret identity thing and possibly risk the relationship. Because, well, Stark is a needy kind of guy--by which I mean nothing terrible, just that he's always been portrayed (at this point in his history, at least) as spending a lot of time looking for love. It's a priority for him. To some extent, having a significant love relationship is more of a priority than maintaining strictly ethical behavior in that relationship. I think that inevitably he'd have told Jan, because he's not a bad person--just that he's going to put it off as long as humanly possible.

However, and fortunately for the drama in this issue, someone calls him on his behavior.

Who?

Who do you think?



It's the Avengers' perennial moral compass and occasional buzzkill, Captain America.

Well, really, only Cap seems to be experiencing this degree of moral outrage. Thor is more sympathetic, for the most part:

Aye, Thor himself knows well the ways of the heart, and 'tis true, they are beyond all reason. But you fear now that your pleasure brings pain to another. 'Tis the plight of Hank Pym that causes you such grief. Yet, have you not brought great happiness to Jan? You have done no wrong in Thor's eyes, Iron Man.

However, he does share an important concern with Cap (as well as with Tony himself)--the fact that Jan doesn't know that Tony is Iron Man.

So, finally, Tony makes his revelation to Jan:



The fallout is probably pretty much as anyone would have anticipated--they break it off, remaining friends, but the budding romance is over.

Does Jan survive the blow, moving on with her life? Absolutely!

Does Tony learn anything from the experience? I'm guessing not really.

Old School Supergirl

I recently came across an old (1980) digest-sized Supergirl comic called The Many Lives of Supergirl. It includes a number of old Superirl stories from various time periods, and none are identified by date--but I'm pretty sure the one I'm talking about here was a 60s or early-70s Supergirl. I'm not a Supergirl fan particularly, but folks on the comic internet have been talking so much about her lately that this story in particular stood out in contrast. It's about Supergirl's introduction to the world, after years spent keeping her super-ness secret from everyone while living her life as orphaned-and-adopted Linda Lee Danvers, and yeah, it's typical Silver Age. But I'm just going to let these images speak for themselves, all right?

Heroclix: X-Men Danger Room Set

The girls and I tried out Heroclix for the first time yesterday; we're just playing around at this point, trying to work out the rules, but so far we like it. We got the X-Men Danger Room set because the girls like the X-Men (it comes with Cyclops, Colossus, Beast, Storm, Archangel, and Jean Grey). We played a couple of quick games, each girl won once, so all was well.

A couple of things right off the bat:

First, the map is too big for the card table, which means that it's going to have to be a sit-on-the-floor game. (Note to self: it might be fun for the girls to make their own maps at some point.)

Second, the little numbers on the dial are awfully hard for these 40+ eyes to read. Way to make a person feel old!

Still, not too much to complain about at this point.

The twelve-year-old loves the game. It's absolutely playable for a twelve-year-old. It's not quite so easy for the eight-year-old, although I'm sure when she's learned what the symbols on the base mean she'll have an easier time of it. For now I think we'll have to ground the flying characters temporarily--making them "hover" instead of "soar"--because that seems to be the main trouble area for her (that a soaring figure is right next to a grounded figure and yet isn't). And we haven't introduced the various cards into the game yet.

It should also be more fun for them once we have more figures.

Although...I have pretty much no experience with war games or miniature games. Tried some RPGs in college but ended up not caring much for them (which surprised me, given my self-perception of mildly-to-moderately geeky, but never mind). The husband, however, has--and in his opinion the game as presented in the rules is likely to get pretty dull after a while, consisting as it does of mostly fighting with very little detail in the "scenarios."

Which I guess is true given that anyone who's playing is playing, not orchestrating a story. So, those of you who have tried this out, do folks pretty much play as recommended in the instructions or do they establish "house rules" to make it more entertaining eventually? We're good with the actual game right now because we're still learning, but I can see maybe wanting to liven things up at some point. Maybe throw in some non-player characters in unexpected places, I don't know. But if we have too many house rules, what happens when and if they get older and want to play with other folks? (Okay, not that that's all that likely but it did cross my mind).

On the other hand, there are aspects of the game (mainly the combat dial on the base) that make it almost ideal for kids to play--no consulting tables, no taking notes, and the math involved seems to be well within the grasp of the eight-year-old. They both take an unwarranted glee in defeating mom (which isn't hard, I'll grant) in battle. And they enjoy personalizing it a bit because they know the characters.

So yeah, right now we're good with this. Mainly it's something we can do together that doesn't bore mom to tears. (Sorry but I played more than enough Monopoly and Clue when I was a kid to want to do much of it now.)

The Spirit #2 [Spoilers]

I've always liked the Spirit, original Eisner version; I remember sitting in the car as a kid, reading black-and-white reprints of Spirit stories. (I don't remember where they came from, but I do remember the story about the little toy machine gun very clearly.) Years later I bought a number of Spirit reprints when they became available. (Presumably I've got them in a longbox somewhere.) So while I'm no expert, possibly not even really a fan, I've always liked the Spirit.

So--like everyone else--I had mixed feelings when this new version came out. Of course I bought it anyway. On the whole I've been pleasantly surprised. One of the great things about the old Spirit stories was the uniqueness of the characters, particularly the women; often in older books (Silver Age and beyond), female characters tend to be drawn all from the same template, not only visually but in terms of character and personality as well. This was never the case in The Spirit--you might not like the women he came in contact with, but you definitely remembered them.

This story features two: Ellen Dolan (the typical "good girl" and the Spirit's main recurring love interest) and P'Gell (one of his better villains).

I'm going to contradict myself here (with reference to the "definitely remembered them" thing) and say that I don't really recall much about the classic Ellen Dolan other than that she was Chief Dolan's daughter, the Spirit's kinda-sorta girlfriend, and not particularly interesting in and of herself. This seems to be changing in this title, which I count a good thing--in this story she's smart and has good research skills--potentially not only a romantic partner for the Spirit but someone who can actively help him when he needs it. (She also seems to have some annoying habits--"I really want you to try and cut down on the amount of red meat you [eat]"--which is all to the good.) This sort of change can only help Ellen's character and I'm actually looking forward to her next appearance.

P'Gell is also well done, for the most part, but I think it was a mistake to tell this particular story about her in her first appearance. Yes, the reader is told about her evil husband-killing past, but it has far less impact than her very sympathetic origin. Much more effective, I think, would have been to have had the classic P'Gell in a story or two first--the smart, seductive, self-centered, ciminial P'Gell who draws the Spirit to her in spite of himself. The woman who provides a direct contrast to Ellen Dolan, come to think of it (as is not the case in this story). After her character (from the Spirit's eye view) is established in this way, then give the sympathetic intro. Then it would have meant more. Now? P'Gell is simply not nearly as interesting a character when we know that about her right from the start. And it's not nearly as interesting a take on the Spirit, that he finds her alluring despite her badness, when you know that he knows what made her that way.

All-New Atom #7 [Spoilers]

This book continues to be so much fun.

I'm liking the evil Dean. (Although somehow I can't help hearing Harvey Korman from Blazing Saddles in my head when he goes into a rant, and that's kind of disturbing.)

And I'm loving the giant head.

And the fact that Ryan is still interested in dating Dr. Zuel. (She has my favorite line in the book: "I promise nothing.")

I even felt sorry for last issue's eeeevil supervillain, Dwarfstar, for half a moment. That poor guy. That poor, scary, sociopathic guy.

New villain? Undecided. Definitely evil, though. Wondering whether the Dr. Hyatt Ryan encounters later is maybe not the same Dr. Hyatt that Ryak is interested in--just a guess, based on what Hyatt says ("My name's Hyatt, Dr. Teddy Hyatt? You might've heard of my dad?").

What stuck in my mind most after reading this issue, though, is Ryan's difficulties in his actual job--his concern about not being a good teacher.

It's possible that he isn't. He asks the class for their input, and when they have none he says "Guess we read from the textbook, then." He doesn't have anything in the way of a lecture prepared? He's relying on student input for class structure? The students have nothing to say and he's got nothing but the text? Sure, I've taken classes where the discussion is often student-led (usually humanities classes--never having taken nuclear physics, I've no idea whether that approach would work for that subject), but I know students well enough to know that the teacher needs to have something else planned. That's not saying that Ryan couldn't be a good teacher. He's got a lot of enthusiasm for his subject, but (in this issue, at least) doesn't seem capable of getting that across to the class.

Justice Society of America #2 [Spoilers]

You know, I'm just enjoying this book so much more than I am the new Justice League of America book, which is odd because I know almost nothing about the JSA. There wasn't a League book in the Big Box Of Comics this month, and to tell the truth I didn't even notice the lack until the husband asked me about it.

The twelve-year-old seems to like the large number of younger heroes in this title, particularly Stargirl who is a favorite of hers.

Hoping to see more of Wildcat's son, and wondering whether they'll manage to keep him heroism-free for long. I suppose it's possible that there are plenty of heroes' kids who don't put on the spandex and we only ever see those who do, but it's an interesting change to see one who really doesn't seem to be interested in carrying on the family tradition. (I'm guessing that what with the storyline focusing on attacks on heroes' families, it'll be a case of him doing something heroic because he has to, to defend himself, and discovering he has hidden talents or some such thing. Be nice if, after that, he still isn't interested. :))

Got a huge kick out of the costume room, although I wonder why there's a sewing machine but no serger in sight--surely most of those skin-tight outfits must be made out of knits! :)

New Excalibur #15 [Spoilers]

I'll totally confess it: I only started to pick this book up because the Black Knight was making an appearance. (Hey, it's not like he's had much exposure anywhere else recently.)

So I guess this means that I'm getting an X-Book now--by the way, is Excalibur still considered an X-Book?--which is a little annoying. We do get New X-Men but that's for the twelve-year-old--other than that, it was the X-books that drove me away from comics 10-12 years ago so I've been avoiding them this time around.

The question is, would I be picking this up if the Black Knight wasn't in it (which is another question, will he join up?)? And the answer is, I don't know but probably, yeah. Keeping in mind that there are plenty of things I don't quite understand in this book (the Juggernaut is a good guy?--and younger? Dazzler has a personality?--and a mean streak?), on the whole I'm enjoying it. The whole "hero group that spends more time fighting each other than they do crime" thing isn't new (remember the Avengers back in the 60s?) but it's entertaining. Captain Britain is more interesting than he used to be, which I'll grant would have been no difficult feat (there were other reasons I bought the old Excalibur title, such as all the other characters in that book!), Dazzler in particular is fun to read, and the group interplay as a whole is good. If the Knight stays on the book, I'll certainly keep getting it. If not, maybe. We'll see.

(Speaking of the Knight, I notice he's being drawn with grey hair again here. Apparently he used to hit the hair dye during that whole thing with Crystal and Sersi back in the Avengers.)

Sorting, gaming, reading (maybe spoilers?)

The twelve-year-old and I spent yesterday afternoon sorting and bagging our assorted comics; she's always liked to have things organized (can't imagine where that came from!) and is very happy with her box of neatly-bagged comics. As for me, I ran out of bags so will have to finish at a later date.

(I don't board books, never saw the point, but since comics are likely to be stored in odd places at times, bagging them does save them from the occasional damp, and possibly even the occasional leaky basement.)

The girls (well, the twelve-year-old at least, not sure the eight-year-old is interested) are going to try out Heroclix. It sounds like it might be something fun to do together. I've been doing a bit of web research on the subject, and while there are many pages, not many have been very helpful. I imagine it's something you have to pick up by doing. So we're looking forward to that!

I'm still in the process of reading the January comics. So far the best comic moment was in Marvel Adventues Avengers:

More Cat-man and Kitten

Well, I've acquired a couple of reprinted Cat-Man comics* and have barely glanced at them yet, but it looks like the change in Kitten (going from preteen girl to fully-grown young woman) took place at about the same time as the comic's artist changed. That makes more sense to me than a simple arbitrary "suddenly she's older and has a bigger chest!" thing--a change in creative team often changes a comic more than you'd expect.

I'm still most interested in the earlier (young Kitten) books, not because I object to older female crimefighting partners for male heroes (heck, the more the merrier!) but because there's something I find interesting in the adult hero/kid sidekick dynamic. Possibly the inequality in the relationship (who tends to get kidnapped, who tends to do the saving) is more acceptable when there's a difference in age to underline a difference in experience?

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From AC Comics, a company that features new comics starring some Golden Age characters including Cat-Man and Kitten, and also reprints actual comics from the 40s and 50s.